Currently, Milky Stack involves players stacking objects, with the goal of not being the one who knocks the tower down. The objects that players stack fall into two categories:
-
Regular blocks (triangular prisms, cylinders, rectangular blocks), and
-
Random objects from the players’ surroundings.
To determine which type of block a player gets to stack, they use cards. These cards either allow them to stack a specific type of block, skip their turn, or make another player stack a block instead. The card mechanics are similar to those found in games like Exploding Kittens.
Milky Stack requires a combination of physical skill—like in Jenga—and strategic card play, similar to Exploding Kittens.
For this critical play, I played exploding kittens to explore more into the mechanics of card play games (very related to the card-based strategy part of “Milky Stack”). The audience of exploding kittens is of anyone that is older than 7 years old, and is targeted for party sizes of 2-5 players. The game was designed by Matthew Inman and Elan Lee, and is a multilateral game (all players against each other) with the objective for players to outwit one another, in order to avoid drawing the exploding kitten and losing. Cards are the main resource afforded to players during gameplay, where at the start of the game players are dealt 5 cards. Another resource that players need to manage during gameplay is the amount of defuse cards that they have (at the start of the game all players start with one defuse card, which allows them to survive one single draw of the exploding kitten card). The game is a turn-based (players play and go in a circle/order), where players must draw a card (might contain an exploding kitten, so there is an element of risk with each draw), or use a card to skip a turn/conduct an action (steal a card, defend against someone’s attack, attack someone). The ultimate winner of the game is the last player that stays alive in the game (without drawing too many exploding kittens).
Exploding Kittens shares similarities with the card-drawing element of Milky Stack, particularly in how both games involve players trying to outwit each other—whether through stacking strategy or the tactical use of action cards like “skip a turn”—and in managing limited resources. However, unlike Exploding Kittens, where players replenish their hand by drawing cards, in Milky Stack, players only receive new cards when all players have run out of the cards in their hands (typically 3–4 cards to start). At that point, the deck is reshuffled and redealt—until the stack inevitably collapses. We originally used a similar mechanic to Exploding Kittens, where players would draw new cards on their turn. But this made the game feel disjointed—almost like playing two separate games at once: one being a stacking game like Jenga, and the other a card game like Exploding Kittens. By shifting to a shared card refresh mechanic and limiting players to the cards they were initially dealt, we introduced a new layer of strategy and unpredictability. Players are now required to think more critically about when and how to use their cards, as they can’t rely on constantly drawing new ones. Unlike Exploding Kittens, where you can take risks knowing you might draw something helpful (or survive an explosion with an extra life), Milky Stack pushes players to be more deliberate and calculated with every move.
Figure: All unique cards from Milky Stack (currently 6 of them) vs. the many cards in exploding kittens
Certain mechanics in Milky Stack—such as being allowed to skip a turn or attack a player of your choice (though in our game, the attacked player only needs to stack one block, rather than draw multiple cards as in Exploding Kittens)—were inspired by Exploding Kittens. These mechanics encourage players to experiment with different strategies, fostering fun through experiential learning. However, we’ve intentionally limited the number of unique action cards in the current version of Milky Stack. When we first played Exploding Kittens, we found the variety of action cards somewhat overwhelming. Understanding what each card did required reading the instructions in detail, which made the learning curve steep—especially for first-time players. While Exploding Kittens is well known for encouraging continuous learning and replayability through its unpredictable mechanics, we felt that initial complexity could be a barrier. So, in our game, we simplified things by reducing the variety of action cards—limiting them to a few basic actions like skip, defend, and attack. To compensate for the reduced unpredictability in the card mechanics, we introduced variability through the stacking cards. For example, some cards may prompt a player to find and stack a plastic item from their surroundings. This adds a layer of spontaneity and adaptability, making the game environment-sensitive and enhancing its replay value across different settings.
In terms of ethics, Milky Stack improves on Exploding Kittens by removing the mechanic of stealing cards. While the idea of stealing cards from other players might introduce more strategic options, it’s also a mechanic that can easily be abused. For example, in Exploding Kittens, a player might repeatedly target and steal from a single opponent, creating an imbalance that feels unfair and frustrating. This can lead to power disparities in the game and even encourage players to team up against one person, potentially knocking them out of the game early. Although some level of targeting is still possible in Milky Stack—for instance, forcing a specific player to place a block—the consequences are less severe. A player can still succeed in stacking without being eliminated, whereas losing all your cards through theft can be far more detrimental. By removing card-stealing, we aim to close an ethical gap present in some competitive games: the normalization of stealing as a justifiable tactic. At the same time, this decision supports a more positive social dynamic during gameplay. Milky Stack encourages trust and fairness, creating a friendlier environment that’s more conducive to forming connections and enjoying the game together.
A final element from Exploding Kittens that we decided to retain and integrate into the card aspect of our game was the strong visual and thematic design. The consistent, humorous, and well-crafted aesthetic of Exploding Kittens—with each card contributing to a cohesive theme—plays a big role in keeping players entertained and engaged. This inspired us to give Milky Stack its own distinct theme and backstory, helping it stand out from more generic, themeless card games like Uno. By ensuring our cards share a unified visual style and narrative tone, we aim to create a more immersive and memorable experience for players—one that’s not only fun to play, but also fun to look at. Overall, Exploding Kittens was a great comparison to base the card-based elements of our game on. However, Milky Stack builds on the drawbacks of Exploding Kittens by offering a less steep learning curve (less unique/complex cards to allow players to get started easier), and compensates by adding uncertainty through the items that are stacked in the game (the unique items are dependent on what objects are in the vicinity of play, and what the players bring with them).
